Jane Russell, Actress Who Starred in `The Outlaw,' Dies at 89

Jane Russell, the actress whose
buxom figure often hid her talent for comedy in movies such as
“Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” with Marilyn Monroe, has died. She
was 89.

She died today at her home in Santa Maria, California, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing her son, Buck Waterfield. He
didn’t cite a cause.

Russell’s film career started with her much-publicized
discovery by billionaire Howard Hughes. The industrialist first
cast her in “The Outlaw”, a western ostensibly about Billy the
Kid that he produced and directed. He also designed a seamless
brassiere to showcase his female star’s outstanding assets.

In her autobiography years later, Russell called the Hughes
bra “uncomfortable and ridiculous.” She wore her usual bra in
the movie and Hughes never knew the difference, Russell said.

Though Hughes began filming in 1941, the era’s censors held
back the movie’s nationwide release until 1949. The “Outlaw”
posters Hughes concocted made Russell a favorite pinup before
the movie’s release. Her half-open blouse (and the censors)
provided all the publicity the picture needed.

The judiciary also boosted the appeal of the movie and its
star. “We have seen Jane Russell. She is an attractive specimen
of American womanhood. God made her what she is,” declared
Judge Twain Michelsen after a San Francisco jury acquitted “The
Outlaw” of indecency charges.

Behind her sultry screen image, Russell was an evangelical
Christian who had grown up in prayer meetings. She used some of
her movie earnings to help build a rustic chapel for her
mother’s ministry.

A year after filming “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” (1953),
Russell formed a trio with Beryl Davis and Connie Haines that
sang religious songs for 30 years, donating the proceeds to
churches and adoption groups.

Haystack Pinup

Jane Russell was born on June 21, 1921, in Bemidji, Minnesota. As a child she moved with her parents to Los Angeles,
where her four brothers were born.

She began acting in plays at Van Nuys High School, where
Bob Waterfield was the star quarterback, a future pro-football
Hall of Fame member, as well as her future husband.

After high school, she took office jobs and modeled clothes
for photographer Tom Kelley, who gained fame later for his
calendar photos of Marilyn Monroe. A talent agent submitted one
of Kelley’s photos of Russell to Hughes when he searched for an
unknown actress to star in “The Outlaw.” She got the part
after a screen test that featured a fight in a haystack.

Russell remained under contract to Hughes for 14 years. In
1948, he permitted her to accept the role of Calamity Jane
opposite Bob Hope in “The Paleface” (1948).

She surprised critics with her deadpan comic delivery,
providing her career with some momentum. Still, she said that
most of her two dozen movie roles proved a letdown.

Adoption Cause

“I loved being on the set,” Russell wrote in her 1985
autobiography. “I loved the actual work. It was the results
that were disappointing.”

When her film career came to an end, the actress made her
Broadway debut in 1971, following Elaine Stritch in the role of
Joanne in “Company.” Later, she made Playtex bra commercials
for 15 years “for us full-figured gals.”

Russell and Waterfield were married while he was still the
quarterback at UCLA. Unable to have a child, they adopted three
children in the 1950s.

After discovering firsthand that adoptions overseas were
mired in red tape, Russell succeeded in lobbying Congress to
ease the regulations then in force. To aid her cause, she also
founded and helped finance the Women’s Adoption International
Fund to facilitate U.S. adoptions of foreign orphans.

Russell and Waterfield divorced after 25 years of marriage.
Russell was widowed after two subsequent marriages. She had a
daughter, Tracy, and two sons, Thomas and Robert.